NY Union Workers Fed Up with Boss's Two-Hour Work Day

If you’ve ever been in trouble for sleeping on the job, take heart: you can still achieve upward mobility in a local union.

Take, for instance, Mark Rosenthal, the president of Local 983 of District Council 37 in New York. Rosenthal makes $156,000 a year and apparently spends only two hours a day at work–much of that napping, according to his colleagues who spoke out to the New York Post.

Marvin Robbins, a union vice president, paints an unflattering portrait of his boss’s routine: “He eats lunch when he arrives at work at 2 p.m. Then, like clockwork, he goes to sleep with a cup of soda on the table and the straw in it. Then he wakes up, looks at his watch and says, ‘I have to get out before the traffic gets bad.’ He’s usually out by 4 p.m. after being at the office two hours.”

The Post describes Local 983 as “the city’s largest blue-collar municipal workers union.” Rosenthal promised to fight corruption when he ran for its presidency in the late ’90s. However, union officials allege he has abused his position to get many a free lunch. They estimate he expenses $1,400 a month on food, much of it from catered events and meals he claims are for “union business.”

Rosenthal asserted to the Post that he works “12-to-14-hour days,” and he claims these complaints are coming from supporters of his challenger as he faces reelection in early June.

He offered two more explanations: first, that executives often take “power naps,” and second, that his naps are caused by pain pills he was prescribed after falling through a chair last year while eating at McDonald’s.

“The chair broke because I’m big,” Rosenthal argued. “I’m 60 years old, so if I eat during my lunch hour and take a little medication, can’t I close my eyes? Is it so outrageous?”